Premenstrual Disorders

energetic and elevated in mood, even though their tuberculosis was not improving. These happier patients led researchers to evaluate the drug more carefully to find if it had any effect on those suffering from depression. Treating depressed patients with iproniazid became prevalent af- ter a 1957 article stated that research showed its ability to improve the symptoms of this distressing mental illness. Even though the drug enjoyed such immediate success, soon after the widespread use of iproniazid began the fear of side effects caused the manufac- turer to take it off the market.

Meanwhile, Ronald Kuhn, a leading researcher in Switzerland, was looking for a specific drug to fight depression that would be nonstimulating in its ac- tion, so that the person would feel bet- ter but not be specifically energized or agitated. Kuhn began by studying anti- histamines. (The antihistamine chlor- promazine hydrochloride was already

sedative : Something that has a calming, soothing effect.

being used to treat schizophrenia.) As a sedative chlorpromazine had a calming effect but only a fair amount of success when treating depression. It seemed that just calming the patient did not alleviate the major symptoms of depression. By the end of 1957, Kuhn announced the discovery of a substance that would relieve depression. This drug was called imipramine and was the first of the antidepressants specifically designed to treat depression without overstimulating the recipient. Once they began using this drug, patients’ appetites returned and they became more like themselves. But most important, they experienced no abnormal elevation of mood; in fact, when nondepressed persons took imipra­ mine, they simply became sedated. This meant the drug would have little chance of becoming addictive. Norepinephrine and serotonin are two neurotransmitters, chemicals that carry messages between brain cells. Because the antidepressant imipramine affected both serotonin and norepi-

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